Should I go to Bible study

[michaelhager]

Here’s the direct answer… Yes, go to Bible Study. If you don;t, you’ll never know what you might be missing. If you do, you’ll have a chance to decide if a particular group is right for you.

Definitely go to a Catholic Bible study, you can easily be led astray otherwise.

I’ve been participating in a men’s bible study group for about three years now. We meet every Tuesday morning at 6:30 AM and finish up in time to get to work.

Our studies have been structured from the Agape web site. We spent two years going through the study on Salvation History, and another year on the Gospel of Luke. Next week we start the book of Acts.

It has been well worth it!

God bless…

 

[Ontheway]

Well, I went to my first Bible study ever. There were about a dozen people, mostly retirees or close to it. We took turns reading from the scriptures and then talk about it a little. Everyone had a different translation of the New Testament, and they were so different that at times it was difficult to follow in my Ignatian study Bible. Frankly, it was annoying to see how each one of us was reading what appeared to be a different book.

Has anyone here had similar experience?

 

[michaelhager]

I attend a structured bible study with he men of my parish. Because of the structure and the materials we use, we get a pretty good understanding of what we are studying. However, as we take turns reading from our bibles to the group it seems that even though we are a catholic group, once in a while I wonder what book people are reading from. There are dozens, maybe even a hundred or more English translations of the Bible and in general, a group like that should make that clear to its members and collectively come to an agreement about which translation should be the standard.

Secondly, if everyone is making an effort to interpret the scriptures individually, even if you can collectively come to an agreement of your interpretations, it would do you good to look at the Catholic interpretation of that particular teaching.

If you are in a Catholic bible study, this would be especially important. If this is not a Catholic study, you are experiencing the reason why there are forty thousand plus denominations out there and perhaps you should back off and find a more structured community.

God bless…

 

[hadulzo]

I own several different translations and actually have the NAB that I acquired some decades ago.
As a follow-up question, is the Catechism of any practical use is such groups? Just wondering.

I go to our diocease scripture school (4 year program)and the text book refers to the catechism all the time. Some times the homework questions refer to it also.

 

[michaelhager]

Absolutely use the catechism in bible study. Remember that the bible comes from the church and any area of scripture that you might want to study has doctrine or teaching explained in the catechism.

If you go to the US Bishops web site and open any part of the catechism, you will find little superscript numbers throughout. If you click on any of them, a small box will pop up with the scripture reference for that particular area.

In fact, one of the bible studies I have participated in chose catechism topics that we read and studied with reference to the scriptures cited there. It was a very interesting way to approach the teachings of the church.

My apologetics web page at TheBibleCatholic.com lists scripture in support of Catholic teaching and each section concludes with relevant catechism references.

God bless!

 

[phil_at_dayboro]

It’s never to late to realise what is important in your life